Daily Archives: May 23, 2011

Energy blogger Robert Rapier has an excellent post about the naive hatred shown towards the fossil fuel industry by what he calls Democrats. I’m not completely convinced that its a position held by all of those on the left (rather than environmentalists, a subset of the left) but the knee-jerk anti energy sentiments tend to aggregate more on that side of the isle. Read the whole thing, especially his thoughts on clueless celebrity activism. He quotes an environmentalist who struggled to come to this realization: (Cooler Heads)

In a politically polarized climate there seems to be little upon which most Americans can agree. But everyone seems to concur that the prices at the pump are too high—even though they have dipped slightly, and that expensive energy drags down a struggling economy.

Even Congress has heard the voice of the people but the White House is still pushing policy that is certain to pump up prices. (Energy Tribune)

AUSTIN, Texas — A report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The University of Texas at Austin urges the U.S. to accelerate efforts to pursue carbon capture and storage (CCS) in combination with enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a practice that could increase domestic oil production while significantly curbing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

For decades the oil industry has used CO2 to extract oil from mature fields, often relying on purchased CO2 from natural sources. The idea of seeking CO2 from industrial sources, such as coal- and natural gas-fired electricity plants, has gained currency because of public concerns about carbon dioxide emissions.

Widespread adoption of combining enhanced oil recovery with carbon capture and storage faces major hurdles, including development of infrastructure, regulation and economic incentives to manage supply and demand of CO2. (UT)

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- There is no evidence that properly conducted drilling for shale gas poses a direct risk to underground aquifers, a group of lawmakers on the U.K. Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee said in a report Monday.

These conclusions could be a boon for the shale gas industry, which has transformed the energy landscape in the U.S. following a huge surge in new production. However, even as it gave a green light to shale gas development, the committee warned that the industry would likely have a far smaller impact on U.K. energy supplies than occurred in the U.S.

The committee rejected requests for a moratorium on shale gas extraction in the U.K., although it urged the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to monitor drilling “extremely closely” as long as the industry remains in its early stages.

“There has been a lot of hot air recently about the dangers of shale gas drilling, but our inquiry found no evidence to support the main concern–that UK water supplies would be put at risk,” said Tim Yeo, the Conservative member of Parliament who is chair of the committee. “There appears to be nothing inherently dangerous about the process of ‘fracking’ itself and as long as the integrity of the well is maintained shale gas extraction should be safe.” (GWPF)

Did the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rely on flawed science when it ruled carbon dioxide was a harmful pollutant, needful of regulation?

That’s one question Virginia and Texas seek to resolve with a lawsuit against the EPA accusing the agency of using known erroneous reports as an excuse to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s another one: did the EPA use agenda-driven science – from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – rather than independent science, as required by law, to arrive at its ruling? (GWPF)

When even rabid “decarbonization” advocates like Roger Pielke Jr. can’t find any association between weather related disasters and “global warming” or rising atmospheric CO2 then you really have to wonder about Oxfam’s claims. It could just be selective application of statistics, we suppose, since they are only apparently looking at the period since the Great Pacific Climate Shift but we would not be surprised if someone had their thumb on scales a bit here.

Today, I want to summarize the clear bias of NOAA’s National Climate Data Center under the leadership of Tom Karl and Tom Peterson on the research we have completed on the remaining uncertainties and systematic biases in the multi-decadal surface temperature analyses that are used by the IPCC and others in the quantification of global warming. Tom Karl is Director of the NOAA’s National Climate Data Center [NCDC], and Tom Peterson works for Tom Karl and has a leadership role in the analysis and interpretation of long term surface temperature data trends and anomalies. (Roger Pielke Sr.)

The ongoing and desperate effort to blame weather on global warming gets increasingly pathetic every day.

The deadliest year for tornadoes in the U.S. was 1925, when 794 people were killed, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Yesterday’s Joplin twister is tied with a 1953 Flint, Michigan, tornado as the single deadliest in records going back to 1950.

I admit I used to doubt anyone was really impressed by governments wasting a few millions and granting grandiose titles to propaganda stooges but here is Reuters elevating a few professional panic merchants and publicity hounds to “Australia’s top scientists” — go figure!

A team of Australia’s top scientists warned on Monday of dire climate change in calling for the nation’s carbon-dominated energy sector to turn green, as the government struggles to win support for a carbon price to cut pollution.

Not only did it break new cinematic ground with pilfered special effects, it proved PowerPoint could sell movie tickets as long as it was narrated by a famous politician willing to say almost anything to increase the value of his investment portfolio. Not only that, Michael Moore suddenly had Oscar competition for agit-prop documentaries.

An Inconvenient Truth made global warming a global star and elevated a relatively feeble field of science far beyond the level of incompetence of many of its biggest names. Celebrities, politicians and activists rushed to the new cool hot cause célèbre and posed for the cameras with concerned faces as they parroted dire predictions about the state of Kilimanjaro glaciers, homeless polar bears and living with a Prius.

Life was golden for the green jet set, but then came failure in Copenhagen and the game-changing revelations of Climategate. That was the beginning of the end for global warming. It’s since been renamed climate change, climate disruption, global weirding and Maude. Okay, no-one’s named it Maude yet, but it could happen. (Daily Bayonet)

My latest HND piece examines the sketchy world of Type 2 diabetes, a disease defined so nebulously that it is becoming a parody of itself. Can it be cured? Good luck getting an authoritative medical answer on that one. The insurance underwriting answer, of course, is “no.”

If the signal symptom is a fasting blood glucose on two occasions higher that 125 mg/dL (6.9 mmol/L), then what about someone who has been diagnosed as such but is is able to get below that level consistently without drugs (usually by improving his diet)? That would pass as a “cure” for me, but then I’m not in the diabetes industry. (Shaw’s Eco-Logic)

NEW YORK | Fri May 20, 2011 3:54pm EDT – For babies at higher risk of childhood diabetes because of family history or genes, a gluten-free diet in the first year of life does not lower the chances of developing the disease, German researchers report. (Reuters Health)

After I wrote Wasting money on climate change betrays sick in The Weekend Australian, Fiona Armstrong of the Climate and Health Alliance replied with Climate action has clear public health dividend. Here’s why she’s missing the main point (saving lives). (Jo Nova)

The object of the Author in the following pages has been to collect the most remarkable instances of those moral epidemics which have been excited, sometimes by one cause and sometimes by another, and to show how easily the masses have been led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are, even in their infatuations and crimes,” wrote Charles Mackay in the preface to the first edition of his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. I want to discuss a contemporary moral epidemic: the notion that increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, will have disastrous consequences for mankind and for the planet. The “climate crusade” is one characterized by true believers, opportunists, cynics, money-hungry governments, manipulators of various types—even children’s crusades—all based on contested science and dubious claims. (First Things)

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Crawling culprit seen in urban kids’ asthma Researchers have identified cockroaches as a potential explanation for dramatic variations between neighborhoods in asthma rates among New York City children. In some New York City neighborhoods, 19 percent — nearly 1 in 5 — children have asthma; in others, the rate is as low as 3 percent. […]

Political Payback – Oregon Style Paul Driessen Confused visitors will be forgiven for thinking Oregon State University is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Congressman Pete DeFazio and the “progressive-socialist” wing of the Democratic Party. Or for likening what’s going on there to political retribution as practiced in Third World thugocracies. (Townhall) […]

The European Union’s taxation commissioner plans to propose a new two-part fuel tax, split into a carbon tax of 20 euros per ton of CO2 and a minimum energy tax on motor fuels and heating fuels. (Reuters).

A first-of-its kind study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that stalled energy projects are costing the New York economy $36.2 Billion and More Than 60,000 Jobs. (Progress Denied: A Study on the Potential Economic Impact of Permitting Challenges Facing Proposed Energy Projects).

Thanks to EPA’s new greenhouse gas permitting authority, a proposed Wisconsin biomass plant has come under fire from green activists. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel report: It doesn’t make sense to issue a permit for the project because it would add emissions of carbon dioxide at a rate much higher than a natural gas-fueled power […]

Check out this galling interview of William Ruckelshaus, the EPA administrator who banned DDT. While Ruckelshaus is correct in criticizing Members of Congress for essentially being willfully uninformed on environmental issues, his criticism is astonishingly arrogant given his own willful (and genocidal) ignorance of facts. During 1971-1972, the EPA held seve […]

Don’t miss Peabody Energy exec Fred Palmer’s unapologetic interview with The Guardian (UK). Notable quotes include: “We’re 100% coal. More coal. Everywhere. All the time.” “We don’t have a political allegiance. We’re Americans and our political party is coal.” “Anyone who has the notion that we’re going to move away from fossil fuels just isn’t […] […]

Light bulb makers, in the form of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, will be testifying against a repeal of the 2007 federal light bulb law on March 10 before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The trade group and its member firms have been making their lobbying rounds on Capitol Hill this week. According […]

Democrat-run Oregon State University is apparently retaliating against climate skeptic and congressional candidate Dr. Art Robinson by taking action without cause against his three graduate student children. Robinson put together the petition against climate alarmism signed by 31,000+ U.S. scientists and unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Peter DeFazio in OR-4 l […]

At the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference today, Sierra Club chief Carl Pope casually mentioned that the Sierra Club sits down with corporations having environmental regulatory problems and then uses its expertise in “changing public policy” to help the corporation solve its problem with the government — a novel role for a non-profit organization that […]

Activists love to talk about the hypothetical far-future “health risks” of a less-cold planet. They are not so keen to discuss the very real harms caused by their hysterical anti-carbon claims here and now. We at JunkScience.com are not so reticent. The immediate trigger for this is an article in the Adelaide Advertiser from South […]

At the annual Rentseekers Ball (aka the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics Conference), Royal Dutch Shell gave attendees room-warming gifts — pedometers, with a note that was headlined “Take the First Step.” If they want us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so much, why do they sell us gasoline?

At today’s House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing on EPA’s job killing greenhouse gas regulations, Rep. Cory Power (R-CO) asked panel witness Dan Reicher — a longtime anti-nuke campaigner trying to position himself as some sort of “clean energy” expert — what could be done to accelerate the issuance of nuke plant permits. While Reicher […]

New Dehli’s experiment with “clean” natural gas turned out to be not so clean after all. A University of British Columbia study reports that, “A pioneering program by one of the world’s largest cities to switch its vehicle fleet to clean fuel has not significantly improved harmful vehicle emissions in more than 5,000 vehicles – […]

Arizona Public Service is proposing a rate package that includes “decoupling” — i.e.: If approved, that would allow APS to collect a certain amount of revenue per customer regardless of how much energy was sold. Such plans essentially allow a company to earn more money for selling less electricity. Wake up Arizona. Decoupling should be […]

By Steve Milloy March 1, 2011, Investor’s Business Daily It looks as though President Obama may have decided that getting re-elected in 2012 is more important than saving the planet from the much-dreaded global warming. But then how does he break it to the people who helped elect him and whose support he will need […]

The coincidence of: Sen. Sherrod Brown’s letter to Obama about EPA regs; Pew Center chief Eileen Claussen’s “prediction” in today’s Guardian about Obama; and Grist.org’s howling about the Brown letter, may be signs that Obama is preparing his base for the impending news that the EPA will be delaying implementation of its greenhouse gas regulations […] […]

I do get tired of all these confident people who are blinded by their intellectual passions. I really don’t think we should ignore the manipulation of the surface temp record, the failures of the models–and more, the devotion to the … Continue reading →

The next step in saving the planet is clean cow technology. The Washington Post reports on a food additive being tested by DSM that interferes with rumen fermentation resulting in a 30% reduction in methane from burping. The byproduct may … Continue reading →

Sounds crazy that I would like a self-professed lesbian, atheist, severe leftist/socialist, but it’s like my affection for Christopher Hitchens–Paglia and the late Hitchens are or were eloquent and principled and both exposed hypocrisy of the left and its failings. … Continue reading →

In a required report, it looks like the US military looks at climate change. From Design&Change, US Military Reports To Congress On How Climate Change Will Affect Operations The oceans will be wet, sea levels will keep on rising like … Continue reading →

This is why Alexis de Toqueville is recognized as a great political commentator and analyst. He knew the seeds of destruction were planted and it would be hard to prevent the bad outcome. When majority politics allows the dreaded problem … Continue reading →

I am not prepared to think that Sci Fi theories about Hal type computers or SkyNet (Terminator) takeovers are in the realm of possibility. Self awareness is not understood and cannot be created, machines are machines, and current levels of … Continue reading →

I thought this essay extraordinary for the insight provided so efficiently. It reminds me of the many times people have commented that this website has no business talking about social sciences and politics, but I would challenge any thinking person … Continue reading →

A series of disturbing videos has brought this grisly practice to the forefront, even if it is nothing new. PhD chemist and theologian Stacy Trasancos dug into the scientific literature to discover some early references… Here’s one from 1972, entitled … Continue reading →

I liked this essay. Great info on the original hygrometer. If you read this you will know why ground fog develops and why temp/altitude/relative humidity are dynamic. William Gray, Roy Spencer and Willis Eschenbach (Willis is a regular here at … Continue reading →

I won’t tell you what I think about this essay–just that I decided people should read it and I am still figuring it out–Dalrymple always makes me think hard. http://www.newenglishreview.org/Theodore_Dalrymple/Hazards_of_Hazlitt/

You don’t need data, just say climate change and it seems logical. From NBC4, Climate Change Could be Culprit With Legionnaires’ Disease on the Rise An increase in cases in the Bronx and an increase since 2000 with the highest … Continue reading →

Steve Milloy put up this link in his remarkably energetic an helpful tweets. I don’t need to do much but put this up–it shows the problems–why the Bamster is killing this economy. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-six-year-slough-1438300451

I have a personal problem with the conduct AND POLITICAL STUPID OF an emergency physician elitist, John Kitzhaber–who was a LEFTIST CREEP and corrupt in his conduct, also a victim of his hormones and sex drive. He hooked up with … Continue reading →

High pH water is supposed to be healthier than just plain old water? From ACSH, Fact checking pHony water Getting enough water is important to health, the pH of the water isn’t likely to have much to do with how … Continue reading →

It may be that stimulation of the Amygdala causes a loss of respiratory drive, according to U of Iowa medical researchers. It is a case report on a rare condition. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/uoih-urs071515.php

I know something about the law and professional disciplinary processes–and Goodell has proven repeatedly that he is in the same league as that clownish State Prosecutor in the Baltimore matter. He allows politics and pressures from people with an axe … Continue reading →